Dear Wizarding Britain
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I'm not even sure I can claim the plot, since I have read plenty of fanfics that go along with what I'm currently thinking about as I write this.
A/N 1: Found more typos while refreshing my mind on what I want to write for chapter three, so this update is just to correct those. The content of this chapter has not changed, except to correct the errors I found.
Molly Weasley was humming away in her kitchen as she was preparing a plate of breakfast for Arthur before he left for his job at the Ministry of Magic. She was busy thinking about the potion she'd just finished making for Ginny to give to Harry this year. The plan was to start him on small doses of the love potion to see how much of a push he needed to start noticing how beautiful the Weasley girl was. She continued humming to herself as she daydreamed about the wedding she would get to plan and how much money Ginny could talk Harry into spending on it, as she placed the food in front of her husband. She was shaken out of her daydreams when she heard pecking on the window.
"Oh, it must be The Daily Prophet," she said to herself as she waddled her way over to the kitchen window to let the owl in. She quickly untied the paper and placed the payment into the pouch on the owl's ankle, then started to unroll the paper and place it next to Arthur so he could read it while he ate. She noticed the headline just as she was setting it down on the table and she let out a godawful shriek before snatching it back up and reading the article. The more she read, the darker her face got. By the time she had finished reading the article, her face was nearly purple.
"What's the matter, Mollywobbles?" Arthur asked in concern.
"That ungrateful boy! How dare he!" Molly cried before thrusting the paper at Arthur, breakfast all but forgotten.
Rather than becoming mad, Arthur's face turned white upon reading the article. "Is this true?" Arthur asked as he watched Molly with a steady gaze, the color was slowly seeping back into his face, turning steadily red in his anger towards his wife.
"Oh. Um. Well, dear," Molly tried to hedge.
Arthur slammed the paper down on the table and pushed himself back to stand up. Looking sharply at Molly, he said, "You and I are going to have a serious discussion when I return home. We'll be lucky if I'm not sent packing the moment I step out of the floo. If that happens, I hope you've stolen enough money for the family to survive, because I doubt I'll ever be able to find work again once everyone has read this paper."
Molly wisely kept her mouth shut, while Arthur put on his traveling cloak and smashed his hat on his head, ignoring her the entire time. A moment later, he grabbed a handful of floo powder and shouted, "Ministry of Magic!"
Arthur hadn't been gone from the Burrow five minutes before the howlers started arriving.
Remus Lupin was packing what little belongings he owned for his undercover mission with the werewolves when Tonks burst into his cabin with a copy of The Daily Prophet. Remus didn't subscribe to it, because he could barely afford food, much less a copy of an unreliable and frequently inaccurate newspaper. He looked up when Tonks handed him the paper with an abnormally solemn expression on her face.
After arresting Umbridge that morning, Tonks felt the need to come see Remus, before he left for the mission Dumbledore assigned him to, because she knew he didn't have a subscription to the paper and wasn't likely to see it until after he was through with his assignment, but she also wanted to see if she could talk him into her tentative plans.
Remus took the paper with a frown and mumbled, "Did someone die?" Then he glanced down at the headline and lost all color in his face. By the time he finished reading Harry's letter, he was on his knees shaking with uncontrollable sobs. His wolf was howling in his mind about the loss of their cub. Something within him broke in that moment, something that couldn't be fixed with a simple reparo.
Remus sobbed for what felt like hours, Tonks holding him all the while, taking care of him. "He's left, Dora. I've failed him. I didn't take care of my cub like I promised James, Lily, and Sirius that I would. I failed to take care of the last Marauder. I failed."
Tonks rubbed soothing circles on his back, as she continued to hold him to her chest. "I'm sorry, darling." She whispered softly. "I can't say I understand how you must be feeling, but I can't blame him for abandoning Britain to You-Know-Who, not after reading everything he said in his letter. I do wish he would have given you a chance, though. I'm so sorry he didn't."
Remus took a deep breath and said roughly, "I can't blame him, Dora. I allowed Dumbledore's suggestions and advice to dictate how much time I spent with Harry and how much information to divulge to him." He sighed and added with self-loathing, "I should have ignored Dumbledore's suggestions and been there for my cub. Sirius and I should have taken him away from those awful muggles at the first opportunity we had. We may have constantly been on the run and in hiding, but surely that would have been better than Sirius dying and Harry leaving on his own."
Tonks made hums of acknowledgement as Remus continued to spill out all his thoughts and regrets. After a while, he ran out of steam and just laid there in the comfort of Tonks' embrace. Tonks thought it felt very nice and was reluctant to do or say anything that would have him remember himself, but she did have something to say.
"Harry's letter got me thinking," Tonks started slowly. This caused Remus to loosen his grip and look up into Tonks' face, but surprisingly, he didn't move from his position.
"IwanttoleaveBritainandIwantyoutocomewithme," Tonks said quickly before she lost her nerve.
Remus blinked in confusion and asked, "Do you want to try repeating that again, but a little slower this time?"
Tonks took a breath to calm her nerves. "There is nothing left for either of us in Britain. My parents are likely making plans to leave England as we speak, and they would have been the only reason for me to try to stay. I want to leave the country before the Ministry starts to panic about everyone leaving and puts restrictions on travel." She took another breath and added, "I want you to come with me, Remus. I don't want to go alone. I don't want you to remain alone. I know the only thing that kept you here was Harry and he's gone. We can go to another country that doesn't have so many restrictions against werewolves." She bit her lip and waited for Remus to respond with wide eyes.
At this point, Remus did sit all the way up, Tonks immediately mourned the loss of his warmth, but tried not to let it show on her face. Moony was howling in Remus' mind about the loss of contact. Remus tried to ignore it, but finally gave in and took Tonks' hand in his, which quieted Moony enough for him to think again.
Remus cleared his throat and gazed at Tonks seriously and asked hoarsely, "Are those your only reasons for wanting me to come with you?" He hoped to Merlin that he had not driven her away by his previous refusals of her. While he could be content to not have more than friendship with her, Moony would drive him insane if he couldn't claim her because Moony had already recognized her as their mate, it was Remus that had been fighting the inevitable.
Tonks' heart began to beat faster at the emotion she heard in his question. She licked her lips as she stared Remus in the eyes and reached up her other hand to caress his face. Whispering, she said, "I want you with me, because I can't live without you, Remus. I love you. I don't care if you think you're too old and damaged for me."
Before she could say anything else, Remus gasped, "Oh, thank Merlin," before his lips were on hers, kissing her with a passion that neither one of them had allowed themselves to feel before.
Between kisses and tangled tongues, Remus mumbled, "I don't know why I fought this for so long."
Tonks responded breathily, "Well, I'm glad you decided not to fight it any longer. Now don't stop."
"I didn't plan to," Remus growled, as he grabbed a hold of his wand to lock down his cabin, not that he expected to be interrupted, but it would be just his luck for someone to come strolling in. He gathered her in his arms and carried her to his bedroom and climbed with her onto the bed. Then he dropped his wand on the nightstand, and then they both frantically began undressing each other, hands touching everywhere they could reach, relishing in the feel of bare skin upon bare skin.
Finally, both were without a stitch of clothing while Remus hovered above Tonks, panting heavily with arousal. "Before we continue," he started to say, but he was cut off when Tonks growled, "Now is not the time for conversations."
Remus rolled his eyes at her impatience. "Please, Dora, I need to say this before we continue." Tonks huffed in annoyance and made a quick gesture for him to spit it out already with a wave of her hand.
Remus closed his eyes to calm Moony down a moment before he opened them again and looked back at Tonks, she was still able to see Moony leaking through and she ran a hand down the side of his face, which seemed to soothe him some. Taking a breath, Remus said with a slightly possessive growl that sent shivers down Tonks' spine, "There will be no going back from this, Dora. You know I am a werewolf. What you don't know is that you're my mate. The moment we consummate, that's it, you are mine."
Dora's eyes dilated in desire at that declaration. "I've been yours since the moment we met, Wolfie. Now, quit trying to be all noble and giving me time to change my mind. I. Need. You. In. Me. Now." She growled back with determination.
The next moment she was being filled more than she had ever been filled in her life. She had a moment of regret that she hadn't waited for her mate, so that this would have been her first time, but all thoughts flew out the window as her lover began pounding into her earnestly, kissing and licking everywhere that could be reached.
Finally, at the moment of orgasm for both of them, Remus bit Tonks on the neck, causing her orgasm to triple in its intensity. Not even her metamorphosis abilities would hide that mark, not that she wanted to after she would find out that it was a mating mark to show she was claimed.
They laid in each other's arms, basking in the afterglow for a while, before they started talking about plans to leave.
Tonks knew that her job as an auror was going to make it difficult to leave quickly, because she needed to tie up loose ends and finish up any pending reports, not to mention she would have to find some way to not be put on any new assignments, which would be difficult considering the fact they were in a war. She decided she would put in a request for some time off after she got her reports caught up, then when she and Remus were out of the country, she would owl in her resignation. Perhaps that wasn't the most professional way to resign from a job, but she knew the Ministry or Dumbledore would find some way to force her to stay if she didn't, considering the Ministry had a shortage of aurors and she had certain obligations to Dumbledore with the Order of the Phoenix that he could spin in a way to force her to stay.
As far as Remus was concerned, there was nothing that could make him come back. Dumbledore was already expecting him to be out of touch while he was undercover with the werewolf packs, so he would just pretend to go on his mission as planned. The only thing that might cause a snag in his plans to disappear was money. He didn't want to use the money that Sirius left him in his Will, but after some convincing from Tonks, he had managed to be convinced that no matter how much he felt undeserving of what Sirius left him, Sirius would want him to use it, as it would almost be like a big fuck you to all the purebloods that voted in the laws to make finding jobs difficult.
So while Tonks would be doing what needed to be done in order for her to leave her job at the Ministry, Remus would go to Gringotts to withdraw a significant amount of galleons and have a decent portion of it converted to muggle money. He debated on withdrawing his entire vault, but really didn't want to add to the panic that Harry's withdrawal likely caused, then again the amount that he had in his vault was probably not even a quarter of what Harry had taken when he emptied out his vaults.
After the visit to Gringotts, he would go out and buy a decent-sized wizarding tent, where he could stay while waiting on Tonks to complete her preparations and escape. The muggle money was so he could buy himself a few pieces of nice, semi-casual muggle clothes to help blend in better when they left Britain using muggle means so they could not be easily traced by the Ministry. Something was telling him they should definitely go someplace tropical, so he decided he would wait until they decided on and reached their destination before buying a full wardrobe.
All in all, Remus and Tonks thought they had the making of a good plan. The only thing they hadn't found a solution for would be where Remus would spend full moon nights. Because he had no access to the wolfsbane potion at this time, he was more dangerous on full moon nights than he ordinarily would be. Though what neither of them knew at this point was that now that Moony had mated, his full moon nights would be relatively calm, as long as Tonks was nearby; however, it wouldn't be for several more weeks that they made that discovery.
So for now, the tentative plan that they were thinking about for the full moon involved seeing how Moony reacted to being filled with a dreamless sleep potion just before the rise of the moon and tie him up to a tree with an unbreakable chain. The other option was finding a large dog kennel that could be warded and spelled unbreakable, so that he could be confined in the kennel during the full moon. Remus was leaning towards the kennel idea being the safest one at this point, but perhaps with the addition of trying the dreamless sleep potion, as he was curious to see if Moony would remain asleep after the change.
Right now, though, Remus and Tonks were just content to remain in each other's arms for the rest of the day, alternating between making love and fucking until the wee hours of the morning, and then sleep until it was time to enact their plans the following day.
Contrary to what most people believed, the goblins of Gringotts were not actually in a panic after Harry's withdrawals and the closing of his vaults, because while he did technically close his vaults, he reopened them under a new name that only the goblins were aware of.
Harry had gone into Gringotts with every intention of removing all of his money and leaving the country pronto; however, after speaking with his account manager and discovering just how much money he had between the Potters and the Blacks, he realized just how sneaky the goblins could be once they explained in detail what all of his options were, rather than taking everything he had out of Gringotts.
So with the stipulation that none of the human employees were to ever be made aware of the new name his vaults were transferred to, Harry agreed to leave the bulk of his money at Gringotts, but want to also open a muggle bank account that could be accessed from anywhere in the world, the goblins could maintain and make monthly deposits on his behalf. However, for a fee, the goblins offered Harry a special money pouch instead that he could use to withdraw wizarding or muggle money anytime, anywhere, without coming into Gringotts or going to a muggle bank, it was keyed to his magical signature and password protected, which Harry set in parseltongue, he would only need to clearly state the type of currency he desired and say the password, then the money would appear in the pouch.
All in all, the goblins were amused by the antics of the witches and wizards of Britain, it was very entertaining to watch them run around like scared chickens, and they were soon raising their glasses to Harry Potter for the chaos that he created by leaving. Stupid wizards.
The twins had already known what was coming and so had already had their contingency plans in place, but they had no intention of waiting for an emergency in order to make their escape. So they packed up their store in the middle of the night and owled Verity to let her know that three months worth of wages had been deposited to her account at Gringotts to make up for the fact that they had packed up shop and left without notice.
Soon enough, they would portkey to Harry and make plans to set up shop under a new identity in a new location.
Neville and Luna had decided they would stick around Britain for a while to at least try to finish their Hogwarts education, but decided to always have their belongings shrunk and in their pockets at all times, just in case the war heated up and they needed to make a hasty escape.
As Lucius Malfoy was still in Azkaban, after the mockery of a battle that had been held in the Department of Mysteries, Narcissa was the only Malfoy adult to have read the copy of The Daily Prophet that delivered the news that her son was not the one who had inherited all of the Black assets. She was far too dignified to show it on her face, not with all of the other death eaters coming in and out of her home, mocking her for her husband's failure at being defeated by a group of fourteen and fifteen year olds. However, after an appropriate amount of time, she excused herself to her rooms, where she cast a silencing charm and flung herself on the bed with a pillow muffling her mouth where she screamed and screamed about the unfairness of it all.
Bill Weasley was having a very bad day. After The Daily Prophet had been delivered, he had received a howler from his girlfriend, Fleur Delacour, screaming that she refused to be associated with a family that would betray Harry like that and that it was over between them. She was returning back to France immediately, and to not attempt to contact her if he knew what was good for him.
If that hadn't been bad enough, the goblins were making changes within the bank that barred any of the human employees from having anything to do with the vaults. Now he had no way of knowing whether Potter really had taken all of his money out of the bank or not. He couldn't imagine the goblins allowing a withdrawal of that amount to happen without consequences.
Now he was being told that if he wanted to keep his job as a curse breaker, he would need to relocate back to Egypt where his skills would be more useful, since Fleur would no longer be at the bank for him to want to be close to, he figured going back to Egypt would be his best option.
A/N: Well, I've started to run out of steam, so I figure this is as good of a place as any to end the chapter. I don't know when I'll update this story again, it depends on when inspiration strikes.